The answer was not long in coming. Three days after the wedding, Harry and Meghan attended the garden party at Buckingham Palace celebrating Prince Charles’s 70th birthday in the presence of representatives of his many charities and associates. Meghan looked beautiful as she and Harry stepped out onto the lawn. They plunged in, glad-handing those who had been selected for introductions. She charmed everyone. Fifteen minutes into the event, she turned to Harry and said, ‘Harry, this is really boring. Let’s leave.’
To his credit, he informed her that they would have to stay. ‘But Harry,’ she said, ‘this is so boring. We’ve done our bit. Everyone knows we’ve been here. Let’s go.’ Harry asserted that they had to stay, and they moved on.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, I was having dinner with a scion of the aristocracy with impeccable palace connections the following evening. The main subject of conversation was Meghan’s desire to bolt once she had taken her bow and boredom had set in at the garden party. Formal events stultified her. If she could not be emoting she had no interest in being present. The individual who had overheard the exchange between her and Harry had been so gobsmacked that he could not keep it to himself. We all agreed that this was a very bad sign. Meghan had patently believed that it was enough for her to doll herself up, radiate delight and glamour as she posed for the cameras, then depart after fifteen minutes once boredom set in. She clearly did not appreciate that the civic duties of royalty and aristocracy involve meeting and greeting as many people as you can on occasions such as these. In our world, there are no short cuts. You either fulfill your duties to the full extent of your capacity or you are a failure. Much of the goodwill that is generated does not take place in front of a camera, but off it, when you’re interacting with people who have come great distances to meet you, sometimes at considerable expense and with great inconvenience. She clearly did not understand the difference between a movie star’s appearance and the reality of a royal appearance. ‘She thinks life is a photo op,’ the scion said. ‘She has a lot to learn,’ I added. It then emerged that ‘they’ve started taking bets at the palace as to how long the marriage will last. Most people opt for two years, the optimists say five.’ A third party gave it eighteen months, while I refused to bet at all. Aside from not possessing enough knowledge to make an informed guess, I also hoped ‘she will realise how important a role she has been assigned.’ I wanted her to live up to it. I saw it for what it was, a unique place in history.
The conversation concluded with the information that the recently created Duke of Sussex had gained himself a new nickname at the palace. He was now known as Blow Jobs Harry because people there were convinced that his brains had been addled through mind-blowingly good sex. ‘It would be touching if it wasn’t so dangerous,’ a royal cousin told me. ‘His eyes follow her around the room as if he’s a devoted puppy and she’s the most marvellous master that ever existed.’ It was David and Wallis (the Duke and Duchess of Windsor) , or Bertie and Elizabeth (Albert, Duke of York, King George VI and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York then Queen Elizabeth) all over again. Yet Harry had stood up to Meghan when she wanted them to shun what he knew to be their duty though she hadn’t understood the importance of it. That in itself was a promising sign. It meant that where his duty was concerned, he might fulfill it, and moreover might encourage her to do likewise. As long as that continued, there was hope for Blow Jobs Harry and Me Gain, as people such as the writer David Jenkins, partner of former Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman, had already started calling the newly minted Duchess of Sussex.
Little did any of us know, but in less than two years, Meghan and Harry would chuck the royal way of life, stating that they wished to make themselves ‘financially independent.’ Since Harry had never given any indication of being financially driven prior to meeting Meghan, it seems safe to conclude that she was the driving force behind that decision, and that Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne had been right all along. Meghan Markle is a businesswoman first and foremost. While there is nothing wrong with that if that’s what you are, it does strike me as a significantly lower calling than being the altruistic and living embodiment of the hopes of billions of people.
Maybe, just maybe, Meghan really had been truthful when she had said in her first blog that she wasn’t interested in fame for its own sake. Maybe her true purpose was a combination of activity and the rewards that go along with success. She had indicated that she loved the perks of celebrity: the primping, priming, promoting, titivating, and money. It wasn’t the money alone that counted, but financial recompense was an integral part of her reckoning. And since royalty is compensated for its activities by respect rather than being rewarded financially for them, the business of royalty, of duty done without financial profitability, wasn’t for her.
CHAPTER 7
In the immediate aftermath of Meghan and Harry’s marriage, no one had any idea that her ambitions exceeded the platform of royal duchess. Everyone in royal circles believed that she had acquired the greatest role of her life, that, being the actress she was, she would play it
